We had a wonderful time at the Color Run. You can find some pictures at the bottom of the webpage. We also got a new student this week, Jackson! We are glad he is with us, and now we have 18 students in our class.
Masks
Many students have been forgetting and breaking their masks. Unfortunately, this is a school-wide problem, and we are running out of extra masks at school. Would you mind sending a few different masks for your student and keeping them in your backpack, just in case their mask breaks or gets dirty?
iReady Testing
This week MOST of the class will start the iReady testing. Some students that I still do not have a password for, these students will take it as soon as I am given their passwords. So please make sure your child will get plenty of sleep and eat a great breakfast. iReady is a tough test for our young learners. For the students who do not start this week, I will take them separately to finish the test next week.
i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment designed to provide teachers with actionable insight into student needs. Adaptive assessments mean that the test gets more challenging and easier based on whether a student got the correct answer in a certain amount of time. In addition, the Diagnostic offers a complete picture of student performance and growth, eliminating the need for multiple, redundant tests.
Please talk to your child.
I have good news that most students support each other and are friends; however, there is a lot of talking and not listening on the carpet. (We learn on the carpet, and we do the work at our seats.) Would you please speak to your child about behaving in school? Progress reports will go home by the following Monday. On Thursday, Mr. Maktari brought all of kindergarten inside for block recess because the behavior on the playground and lunchroom.
Snap words
Since I cannot test all students on reading and writing the snap words on Friday, we will begin testing earlier in the week. I will send the results home. Please practice the words: a, I, like, me, my.
Science: – The 5 Senses Mystery boxes and textures
We explored our senses more; we focused on the importance of touch! We started the week off by exploring mystery boxes! First, random objects of different textures were put into boxes; these boxes were covered, so students only put their hands in the box to feel what was inside. Then, we talked about what the items felt like and guessed what was inside the box as a group! The items inside the boxes were small toys, popcorn, play-doh, oiled noodles, rocks, etc. We also explored more things this week and sorted them by their texture – soft, hard, fluffy, wet, rough, bumpy, etc. Finally, we wrote about it in our class science notebook. Next week we will continue to explore our senses!
Math: dot cards, number board, and pocket counting
We learned more about numbers and counting. We used dot cards to help us learn about how numbers can look differently – it is not always shown the same way. We also practiced what numbers mean using a number board. We practiced by putting stickers into our chart to show different numbers. We talked about how you add one more after each number to get to the following number (2 is one more than 1). Lastly, we practiced pocket counting by using counters (small objects). We talked happens when we add more or take away from our pocket; how does that change the number of counters in our pocket?
Reading
We are still working on staying in one spot and reading the whole time. We read Little Smudge and retold it. We also read several apple books and made apple sauce by reading a recipe. Most of the students did not like the apple sauce, but it was a fun experience. This week’s theme was all about Apples, and next week’s theme will be spiders. Remember to return Library books by Friday!
Phonics
Students are getting instruction in small and whole group situations. This way, we can teach the curriculum needed, meet your child where they are, and practice skills they need to work on. For example, we have learned how to make each letter, both upper and lower case, and their sounds. We will continue to work on this throughout the year. Next week we will focus on rhyming. It seems that most of the class needs help in this area. Rhyming is a prereading skill; the better the rhymer, the better the reader, writer, and speller. Mabel (our phonics mascot) came and visited us and encouraged us to keep practicing our letters and sounds. —see the video below.
Writing
Everyone in the class needs help in writing. We learned how to label and that our pictures tell a story. We used our sight words to make simple class books. Next week we will be using our snap words to write pattern books. (An example of a pattern book would be. I like my mom. I like my dad. I like my brother. AND I like me.)
Color Run Pictures!
